Using+Wordless+Picture+Books+with+Immigrant+Students

Carmen M. Martínez-Roldán and Sarah Newcomer “Reading between the Pictures”: Immigrant Students’ Interpretations of //The Arrival//

In this article, Martinez-Roldan and Newcomer present a reading strategy for immigrant students who are in various stages of learning English. They use wordless picture books in small group settings as a jumping off point for discussions and meaning-making activities. I love using wordless picture books- there are so many useful ways to use them in the classroom. However, I had not even considered how helpful wordless picture books could be for students with limited English proficiency. This is great example on focusing on students strengths as readers and writers instead of seeing differences as deficits. (See my post about deconstructing deficit thinking.)

In the study, the authors use two questions to guide their research: “How do immigrant children make meaning of wordless postmodern picture books in small-group literature discussions?” “In what ways does participation in discussions of wordless postmodern texts support immigrant children as readers?” (p. 188).

Martinez-Roldan and Newcomer point out that “for recent immigrant children, becoming members of the ‘literacy club’ (Smith) within the classroom may present almost insurmountable obstacles” (p. 189). Immigrant children are often identified as having pre-emergent reading skills even though they actually have many skills as readers and writers. Using wordless picture books give teachers an alternative way to observe and assess students’ meaning making of characters and plot as well as interpretation of images. Wordless picture books also invite students to ask many questions (p. 189).

I found this observation from their study quite encouraging: “By using the pictures as a shared point of reference, it was as if the boundaries between English and Spanish had disappeared” (p. 195). Ryan, one of the students that participated in this study, was able to engage his peers in discussion, even though he only spoke Spanish. This is a student whose teacher reported that he never spoke a word during the school day. Clearly, these researchers are onto something in their use of wordless picture books with immigrant, limited English proficient students. I will add this strategy to my mental repertoire of reading comprehension strategies to use with my students!